“The White Helmets “: a thank you to Khaled Khatib

I want to begin this post by thanking Khaled Khatib, a member of the White Helmets, who sent me a link to see the film, by the Syria Awareness Campaign.

I wanted to see absolutely the movie, but in the city I live, there was no hope that it was played. I don’t want to say than Corsica is a cultural desert, but I am used to Paris…So, again, thank you.

The film is a really great work, and I think most people have to see it, to be aware of the situation in Syria: it would avoid fake news , from people who negate Assad’s murders.

The movie is not a fiction, it is a documentary, everyone knows this, but this fact has consequences: the maker is a war reporter, and the “actors” are the White Helmets themselves, in their actions.

We all remember the “miracle baby”, saved from under stones and mud; in the film, we attend the saving, and the reactions of the team .If not saved, the poor kid would have died like this, another victim of Assad:

We know that they even search corpses under the ruins; we ignore the morbid attitude of passengers , who standby as in a show; in a scene, one White Helmet is obliged to tell these persons “go away”. Their aim is to give the dead to the family so that he have a sepulture conform to the Muslim ritual.

On Netflix, the film is classified as “emotion”. In effect, it produces much emotion in the attendee. Suddenly, the Syrian Revolution is here; you share the daily tasks of the team, their questions, too.

It recalls us, in the presentation of members of the team, that they are civilians, and had no medical or rescue experience before the Revolution : one is builder, another tailor; they chose the rescue because of their faith, which gave them their motto: “To Save one Life is to Save All Humanity”.

From one scene to another one, they run to save lives: no time can be lost.

The pauses : when a member is trying to have by phone news of his son; the sunset and the sunrise, filmed in their splendor, because the sunset is a time of prayer , and this of the morning must be said before or after the sunrise.

These breaks are religious times: when the muezzin calls to the prayer, peacefully, as if there were no war, a man psalmodies the prayer .

One time of emotion is particularly strong: when Khalid takes in his arms his daughter.

But we cannot fall in melancholy or sentimentalism: if the film has been awarded by the Oscar Jury as the best Documentary, it is because it is a testimony of the Syrian Revolution.

To all who negate the facts, it constitutes the best answer: this film shows the reality.

After having seen it, we could never say : we didn’t know.

Now, we know, thanks to the producer, the movie-maker, and the team of the White Helmets in their own roles.

As for me, who have been a supporter of the Syrian Revolution since its beginning, I knew some facts, but if I saw this film, it is thanks to a member of the team, Khaled Khatib. I am thankful.